Week 2, July 1 – 7 (Sunday through Saturday): July 6 will feature our annual fundraising auction, followed by banquet dinner. On July 7 Tenzin Rinpoche will give a dzogchen initiation, The Great Primordial Initiation from the cycle of Zhang Zhung Nyan Gyu.

Week 3, July 8 – 14 (Sunday through Saturday): On each of four mornings during this week, Tenzin Rinpoche will give a transmission for one of the four most important dzogchen texts of the Zhang Zhung Nyan Gyu (details to come).

According to the Bon dzogchen teachings, the suffering of sentient beings can be traced to a single cause: our failure to comprehend that external appearances are only a manifestation of our own innate awareness. The teachings of the Six Lamps guide us to experience pure vision by recognizing the clear light of self-awareness in all levels of our existence:

In the vast, infinite space that is the base-of-allIn the space within our heart centerIn the subtle channels of our sacred body that connect the heart with the eyesIn the external space surrounding usIn all external visionsIn the visions we experience after deathThe practice of the Six Lamps introduces us first to our inner light — helping us to overcome the internal darkness of ignorance, doubt and negative emotions. Then, it introduces us to the external manifestation of that light, helping us to overcome the external darkness.

During these teachings, through instruction and guided meditations Tenzin Rinpoche will help us learn to maintain our connection with the inseparable state of emptiness and innate awareness and to perceive all aspects of our environment with pure vision. Ultimately this practice is a path to self-liberation, enabling one to experience all visions of the bardo (the transitional state after death) as inseparable from one’s own essence, the essence of Samantabhadra.